Back in school again!

We just finished our 2nd full week of language school here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We live about a mile from the school, so we take a taxi part way and walk the rest of the way (I can't walk all the way with my bad knees).

We've already learned alot, and our heads are full by the end of the night! We have been given tons of homework every night from the 1st day of school, plus we have to go out and meet with 10 Tican's (as they call the locals here) that we meet away from the school (same people every week if possible) and practice with them as our Interaction class. We have to fill out a journal on our times with these people and report them to our teacher weekly. On Friday, our Conversation teacher taught us to make the traditional Costa Rican dish, called "Gallo Pinto"...which is basically black beans and rice mixed together with cilantro, garlic, celery, onion and a sause. Its ok, but it's definitely NOT Mexican...or as good:).


We had a Cowboys get-together last Sat. and a Packer's get-together at our house last Sunday, which was fun. As you know, the Cowboys lost...so all of our fellow Cowboy friends have now switched over to Back the Pack with us! Can't wait till tomorrow to see how the Packers do!

Beautiful Costa Rica!

This is a beautiful country! So much green and the mountains are georgous. We have a one bedroom apartment, fully furnished with "grandma's deco's", and a nice landlord who lives next door. He is from N.York but has lived here with his Costa Rican wife for 47 years. Her mother also lives with them, and will turn 101 next week!



The city really reminds us of Monterrey, except the streets are all hilly (we're high in the mountains), and there are no...no street names! We took a taxi to the store today, and to get home we had to tell the taxi driver that we are "300 meters south of the bank and 50 meters east"...then you just look till you find your street and house! We live about 1-1/2 miles from the school, so will be taking taxis everyday since I (Debbi) can't walk that far with my knees. The weather is absolutely wonderful....just a bit windy from the downdrafts of the mountains (makes the windows rattle all night:), and even a bit chilly at night!



Today we'll take a tour of the city with the school, then start orientation & classes on Monday (took our placement tests yesterday). I'll take photos of our house and post them soon.



Sure miss our kids and dog....and all of our friends, but soon we'll have our Vonage phone hooked up (about a week) and we'll be using our old cell number, so it'll be a call to McAllen, TX!





;

"I'm leaving, on a jet plane..don't know when I'll be back again"

We have been busy, busy, busy! Roger and I got all of our stuff loaded in a U-Haul and put in a storage unit in the RGV this past weekend, then drove to Corpus to do a service in a new church plant...had lunch on the causeway to Padre Island with the Pastor and family and fun friends (great place to eat fish at...called Snoopys). Then we drove back to McAllen to pick up Jeremy and he drove to Alice with us to drop us off at Bifferts, then he took our car back with him. We are staying here with our friends until tomorrow morning...getting up at 3am to dressand leave for Corpus airport)...then we're flying off to Costa Rica, finally! We are all packed and finally having a chance to get excited about it. You know,,,,we love the good ole USA, but we're outta here anyway! Now its on to our next adventure with God...language study!
I will be posting photos soon and updating you on how things are going. So, stay tuned!

Early bird sale

So my garage sale....yes, believe it or not...its doing great...even the weekend before Christmas! We got home from dropping Charity off at the airport at 5:30 this am, and while we were putting out our signs we had a guy following us (I was a bit worried, but had Jeremy with me:). When we got back home, he pulled in the driveway and asked if we were open yet (remember, this is 5:35am by now!)....so I opened up the garage and he bought $45 worth of stuff, and the people started coming and coming, through the rain this am, the sun this pm and now the wind. I guess its true what they say..."the early birds get the ladder, the grill, the good stuff"!

I even got to see our favorite friends here in Katy, Pastor Al and Rebekah and their son, Taylor stopped by this afternoon, lots of laughs (as always with them:). You know, you can make anything into a good time, even a garage sale. (P.S. if you're interested, I have stuff left)

We made it!!

It was our 31st Anniversary this month, and while we were having a meal out to celebrate it, we received "the phone call"....da da da da.....we got our clearance to leave for the mission field, as we have made our goal of raising 100% of our monthly pledges!! thanks to you who pledged.....we are grateful! We've enoyed our time here in the USA for the past year and half, but to be honest with you, we need "to be about our Fathers business", and to where he has called us to...the mission field!
So, we will be leaving Jan. 2... (after packing our things up and putting them in storage in McAllen, TX, then we'll stay at our friends Paul & Colleen Bifferts house in Alice, TX then flying out to San Jose, Costa Rica on Jan. 2 for a year of further language study. We will have a 1 bdroom apt there, and will be taking taxis and buses to school and back every day. I'm sure it will be challenging, but I can't wait till I hear Roger preach in Spanish the first time, it will be worth everything!!
We have also purchased a Vonage telephone system, so we are going to hook that up with our current cell phone number, so friends and family can call us (visa versa).
Please keep us in your prayers!

Christmas celebration

With us leaving for Costa Rica on Jan. 2, and Charity being "on reserve status" as a new flight attendant, we planned to celebrate Christmas early with hte kids. So Charity and Jeremy both arrived here in Katy this week, and we had a few fun filled days along with having Christmas! We did a little shopping, baked sweets and then on Thursday, Dec. 21, had a wonderful ham and fixings...opened up gifts and Jeremy read the Christmas story to us all.
I hadn't wanted to put away tons of decorations this year, so I decorated the tree with the Christmas cards that we received from family and friends, so if you sent one, you were a part of our tree, and thank you, it was beautiful!
Of course, you can't have Charity here without having some kind of drama, and yes, we did...with her trip home to Salt Lake City..but it all ended up ok! We took her to the Houston airport at 3am today, and then Roger headed out with Jeremy to pick up his car 4 hours south of here, then he's heading on back to McAllen.
I on the other hand, am having a garage sale (yes the weekend before Christmas, can you imagine that?!?)...and selling tons of stuff! If I can sell it, its less to pack!

Let it snow....

Well I (Debbi) just got back from Salt Lake City yesterday! Charity and I spent a fun few days together, in her tiny apartment and shopping a bit too! Then the last day, we got a snowstorm!! It was so beautiful...the kind of snow thats really wet, so it sticks to the branches and is so pretty coming straight down (no wind). I went out at night and took some photos, as I really miss the snow!
Then Roger picked me up at the Houston airport (using Charity's flight attendant bene's:), and we drove to San Antonio area to speak on Sunday. We had a good service, and are ALMOST finished with our itineration!
God is so faithful in all He does...and we love to see how He makes a way with our lives when we can't see past the day in front of us! I'll keep you posted on our next few busy weeks before we leave for Costa Rica!